How Your Internet Connectivity Works

How much do you know about the technical inner workings of the Internet? We tend to think of it as a very, very large cloud… and it is. Let’s take a peek inside, courtesy of this fascinating Internet Infographic from Telex:

What Connectivity Do You Need?
To take full advantage of what the Internet can actually do, you need a solid connection from your business location to the backbone of the Internet. This is what a Tier 1 service provider can give you. You can’t afford to make that direct connection, but a large carrier can. What you order is called “dedicated Internet access”. That’s bandwidth that is assigned to your operation and no one else. With DIA, you’ll get the most consistent bandwidth along with the lowest latency, jitter and packet loss available. It the next best thing to a private network or a direct point to point line service.

Cross-Border Private Line Services

When we think of ordering private line services, we’re usually looking to connect a couple of business locations within the country. Granted, one may be on the East coast and the other on the West coast, but you’re still taking about the same nation. Sometimes, though, you’ve got to cross an international border to do business. In that case you need international network or cross-border line services.

Not every carrier does business internationally. In fact, there are really only a handful compared to all the others that operate regionally within a few bordering states or have a nationwide footprint. When you go from one country to another, you are dealing with different laws, different customs and sometimes even different technical standards.

For instance, did you know that the companding standard for digitized switch-circuit telephone calls is different between the US and Europe? They are almost, but not quite, identical. The standard CODEC (Coder/Decoder) for PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) is G.711. To improve the signal to noise ratio and create quieter calls, a technique called companding is used. Basically, the voice signal is compressed when it is sent and expanded on the other end. The compression doesn’t affect the noise on the line, but the expansion makes whatever noise is picked up during transmission lower in volume. The compression algorithm Mu-law is used in North America and Japan. Another algorithm called A-law is used in Europe and the rest of the world. By convention, A-law is the default for telephone connections where one party is in a country using A-law.

The same can be said about T1 lines. In Europe, there is no such thing as a T1 line. Over there the standard is E1. What’s the difference? It comes down to the number of channels and bandwidth of the line. T1 lines run at 1.5 Mbps using 24 channels of 64 Kbps each. That channel size was chosen as the standard for the PCM digital telephony just described. The US, Canada, Japan and South Korea use the T1 line standard. Japan calls their slightly different version J1. Europe and the rest of the world use E1 as a standard. E1 lines run at 2 Mbps and have 30 channels or time slots instead of 24.

None of this makes a hoot of difference unless you are trying to connect traffic from one country to another. Then, suddenly, being able to make the conversions between standards becomes critically important. Obviously, it’s possible to interface T1 to E1 and have your equipment set up to switch from Mu-law to A-law when needed. We communicate globally with no effort on the user’s part whatsoever. But somewhere along the line, someone has make that border crossing interface so that traffic flows smoothly. Those are your international carriers.

What cross-border telecom services are available? Private data lines are very popular with multi-national companies or companies that do business internationally. If there are only two locations, a point to point circuit with the right bandwidth is what you are looking for. If you have multiple locations, some of which are in other countries, a MPLS network is likely a better answer. MPLS stands for Multi-Protocol Label Switching. The multi-protocol aspect means that it can handle just about anything you can throw at it. An international carrier running an MPLS network can pick up your traffic anywhere they have a Point Of Presence and drop it off at any of their other POPs. You use an appropriate last mile connection, say T1, E1, Ethernet over Copper, SONET, Ethernet over Fiber, etc., to connect to the network POP.

Here’s an interesting fact. You may find that if the distance is long enough, an MPLS network is less expensive than a dedicated private line even for only two locations. That’s because the engineering and operations cost for that special private line can be substantial compared to an MPLS network that is already in place near your business locations.

Do you have a need to connect from the United States to one or more international destinations? Check cross-border line service availability and pricing to see just what your options are from carriers that specialize in these types of connections.



Note: Earth globe graphic courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

What Makes 10 Mbps Ethernet So Popular?

One of the most popular bandwidth services for business right now is 10 Mbps Ethernet. What’s that about and how can you benefit too?

What we’re talking about here is Metro Ethernet or Carrier Ethernet connections running at 10 Mbps. They can be used to connect two business locations in a point to point setup. They can be used to provided a dedicated Internet access connection. They can also be used as an on-ramp to a larger cloud network for national or even international connectivity.

So why 10 Mbps? It’s a bit of a sweet spot in the spectrum of bandwidth choices. T1 lines have been that sweet spot for the last decade. But business applications are getting more and more bandwidth hungry. The 1.5 Mbps provided by a T1 connection isn’t really enough anymore, even though T1 line prices have come down considerably. The Ethernet equivalent is a 3 Mbps connection for about the same money as T1, but offering twice the bandwidth. For many small businesses, 3 Mbps Ethernet may be all that’s needed for the time being.

Companies with more that a few employees or using video conferencing, on-site web hosting and other demanding services find that 10 Mbps Ethernet offers a considerable bandwidth upgrade at a reasonable cost. It’s not that much more expensive than T1 was a contract or two ago.

One technical reason that 10 Mbps Ethernet is in a “sweet spot” of bandwidth pricing is that you can often get it delivered on copper as well as fiber optic cabling. By copper, I mean multiple pair of twisted copper telco wiring. It’s the same bundle that’s used to bring in analog telephone and T1 lines. The service provider leases this already-installed copper from the local telephone company and then connects those pair to special EoC termination equipment. That’s the magic that makes it possible to get such a bandwidth jump without an equivalent jump in cost.

Where is 10 Mbps Ethernet service available? It’s offered now in most metropolitan areas from multiple competitive service providers. Downtown in major cities, you can almost always get 10 to 50 Mbps Ethernet over Copper. The exact speed available is determined by the distance from your location to the nearest carrier point of presence. In suburban areas and smaller cites, you may also find EoC. If not, some carriers are offering Ethernet over DS1 or EoDS1. This is a similar service, but uses T1 line technology with signal regenerators to extend the service range.

What if you need even higher bandwidths? Ethernet is probably still your most cost effective choice, but it will be provisioned on fiber optic cable rather than copper twisted pair. Way out in the boonies, that can be a problem when there are no fiber cables for miles around. In town, construction costs may not be that expensive if you are close to a service provider’s office. If you, or you plus other businesses in your building or industrial park, order enough bandwidth, construction costs may be waived or greatly reduced.

Does this sound like a promising bandwidth service for your organization? The way to find out is to get a summary of availability and competitive pricing for 10 Mbps Ethernet Service. Quotes for higher speeds up to 10 GigE are also available.

Ethernet Point of Presence Locator

You’ve been hearing about lower cost bandwidth options and wondering if you can get more Mbps for less money. The question is, “how can you find out?” What you need is an Ethernet Point of Presence Locator.

What’s that and what’s a point of presence? Ah, these are the keys to getting a better deal on business bandwidth.



Point of Presence, or POP, is a location where carrier services are located. For instance, a major competitive carrier may well have a central office located in your city. Within this facility is termination equipment for the carrier’s metropolitan and long haul fiber optic network. In other words, this carrier POP is like a station where you can get on and off their high speed voice and data network.

The same carrier may have POPs that aren’t part of their office facilities. Many carriers have POPs within colocation centers. Those are public facilities that specialize in housing server equipment for business users. They offer rack space, security, fire suppression, back up power and bandwidth. The bandwidth is provided by however many carriers choose to establish carrier POPs in the colo facility. Because your equipment is located within feet of the carrier POP, construction costs to provide you with bandwidth are little to nothing.

So, you’re looking around and don’t see any colocation centers or carrier central offices anywhere near your building. Does that mean that you are out of luck? No, not at all. There may be all sorts of POPs that aren’t readily apparent. The most prevalent example is the “lit” building. Lit means lit for fiber optic services. To light a building, fiber optic cabling and termination equipment must be installed and turned up. That’s generally only done when there is enough demand by one or more clients in the building for high bandwidth services. But once a building is lit, it can be used as a jumping off point to provide services to other buildings nearby.

The beauty of finding a lit building and its associated Point of Presence is that construction costs are minimal if you are next door to such a facility or within a short distance. The big cost of providing fiber optic bandwidth services is having to trench the fiber cable underground or suspend it overhead on utility poles for miles and miles. Bandwidth, especially Ethernet bandwidth, can be quite affordable if you don’t have to bear the capital expense of extensive fiber construction.

So, if they are not visible to the naked eye, how do you find these lit buildings? Fortunately, you have access to the Ethernet Building’s Point of Presence Locator. You simply enter the address of your building and get a map of nearby lit buildings in seconds. You can then get prices for bandwidth services you are interested in. It’s quick and easy, so give it a try. You may be surprised by how much fiber optic capability is hiding right next door or down the street.